Gordon Harold SMITH

(1952- )

Senate Years of Service:

1997-2009

Party:

Republican

SMITH, Gordon Harold,
(cousin of Thomas Udall and Mark Udall), a Senator from Oregon;
born in Pendleton, Oregon, May 25, 1952; relocated with his family
to Bethesda, Maryland, where he attended the public schools; served
a two year church mission in New Zealand; graduated from Brigham
Young University 1976; received law degree from Southwestern
University School of Law, Los Angeles 1979; admitted to the New
Mexico bar 1979, Arizona bar 1980; law clerk, New Mexico supreme
court 1979-1980; practiced law in Arizona; president of Smith
Frozen Foods; member, Oregon State senate 1992-1997, president
1995-1997; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States
Senate in January 6, 1996, special election for the remainder of
the term ending January 7, 1999, left vacant by the resignation of
Robert W. Packwood; elected as a Republican to the United States
Senate in 1996, becoming the first individual to run for a
state’s two United States Senate seats in one calendar year;
reelected in 2002, and served from January 3, 1997, to January 3,
2009; chair, Special Committee on Aging (One Hundred Ninth
Congress); was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in
2008.